Brentford Bob

It's not just me then!? I've had the same problem recently - I did a wedding at a lovely hotel in Hants and it went well until about 10pm when I was left with an almost empty dance floor. There were some many young kids there that they all started to fall asleep at about 9 o'clock and thus by 10 the parents were taking them off to bed and not coming back. The bride was pretty much on her own from then on! I also did a 40th recently where the birthday girl had booked the venue until midnight. She wanted the last hour to be totally "club" orientated so I played lots of 90's

I've done my best on the other thread....

Depends on the models involved. However, at a guess, you need a cable to connect your laptop to the inputs of the mixer. If your laptop doesn't have a dedicated soundcard, you're probably looking at taking a cable from the headphone socket of the laptop. So that will be a 3.5mm stereo jack plug. The "line in" inputs on the multimix are 6.35mm jack plugs, so by my reckoning you need something like this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003TWR...ZJ3RK01PYXJSBP2 Then, I think you'll need 6.35mm jack to XLR cables to go from the "main mix out" sockets on the mixer to the spea

I don't think people are anti Maplins as a rule. It's just that Maplins don't really offer particularly good value for money. If you're on a limited budget, buying second hand gear from eBay and Gumtree is tha way to go. If you're charging people money for your services, you also need spare EVERYTHING. Not forgetting that you MUST get Public Liability Insurance - it's totally worth it for fifty odd quid a year.

Depends how much you want to spend but for fifty or sixty quid, you should be able to pick up a used Alesis Midiverb effects unit which will give you all the echo/reverb/delay fx you'll ever need - and more.

I reckon given a bit of time, I could come up with a fair few of these.... As a starter, how about the guitar intro to I Feel Fine by The Beatles. Or Enter Sandman by Metallica? Keyboards, you could go with Bat Out Of Hell by Meatloaf, Step On by Happy Mondays or Light My Fire by The Doors. Drums - Walk This Way - Run DMC, Honky Tonk Woman by The Rolling Stones or Billie Jean by Wacko Jacko.

I'd like to add a bit more "structure" and symmetry to my current lighting set up. Which two LED lights work really well in master/slave mode? Budget is around £250-£300 for both....

Looks good - and similar to mine. I wish I could leave the lights permanently on the T bars and be able to transport them safely like that.... I guess there are flightcases for such a thing but they cost hundreds and probably wouldn't fit in the motor! The one hour set up time isn't usually a problem but I did a wedding on Saturday where they were running late and still expecting me to start at 7.30pm - I couldn't actually get in to the function room until 6.45 but we'd originally agreed that I could have access at 5.30!

Same here, although I always use "I gotta feeling" by BEP's. Infact, I did that just last night - The only exception by Paramore was the first dance, then Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls for all the friends and rellies to slow dance to, then the BEP track. It seemed to work - the dancefloor was full all night!

How long does it take everyone to set up? I run two laptops with a mixer and power amp into 2 x subs and 2 x tops. Lighting wise, I have 2 x T bars on tripods with 4 x par cans and 3 other lights (ADJ H20, Dualize scanner and MarvelLED). There's a couple of other bits as well - an led star cloth to cover the front of my 'booth' and a wireless mic. It takes me just over an hour to set this lot up. Does that sound right? How can I simplify things - active speakers? Par bars?

I've got a pair of Peavey 15" Pro Subs and even at "only" 26.5kg they seem pretty hefty (although I have replaced the drivers with Fane efforts, which are a bit heavier). Get yourself one of these: http://www.screwfix.com/p/folding-platform...3;1364549189510 Best thirty quid I've spent, and it folds completely flat too.

Sommer Meridian 2 x 1.5mm speaker cable is where it's at. It'll cope with just about anything you throw at it. Here's where to get some: www.kablonline.com ;-) Failing that - just use mains cable.

Thank you Mr McCardle - I appreciate the time you've spent typing that lot out! Think I'll stick to sound to light for now because I still don't get it!

That's what I'm going towards to! Forgive my stupidity but I just dont get the whole dipswitch thing - I clearly have a feeble brain. I recently bought four Showtec LED par56's and a Showtec Operator 1 controller, fully expecting to be able to "plug and play" but alas not. Is there not a standard set of settings to use? I contacted Showtec who basically said "read the manual" - which I've done, many times but I'm still none the wiser.

Thanks fellas. I had a feeling that may be the case. Someone needs to invent something - quickly!